ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,257,972, issued on March 25, was assigned to Autoliv Development AB (Vargarda, Sweden).
"Side airbag device" was invented by Yuto Kobayashi (Kanagawa, Japan) and Mitsuo Nogami (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention is a side airbag device stowed in a side support part of a vehicle seat, which includes: an airbag capable of expanding and deploying toward a front side from the side support part; an inflator that supplies expansion gas to the airbag; and a bracket that retains the airbag in a compressed state. The inflator is secured to an inner side (occupant side) of a side frame of the vehicle seat. Furthe...